London Street Lampposts Converted Into Charging Points for Electric Vehicles

The startup company Char.gy, with the help of the Warwick Manufacturing Group from the Warwick University, have come up with an invention that converts the already installed London street lampposts into electric vehicle charging points.

Through this creative invention, new electric charging points will be availed to EV owners without the need to dig up the pavements or add another power supply.

To implement it, however, this invention required a bespoke electronic circuit board to meet the EU standards for the charging points to be ready for public use.

The WMG helped Char.gy in designing, building and also testing the electronic board prototype, which made it possible for the startup to meet the certification deadlines.

It’s because of the help from Warwick Manufacturing group that the lampposts are ready for the public to charge their electric vehicles.

The university also purchased the Char.gys for the electronic vehicles available at the campus, including their fleet of battery-powered vans.

Char.gy CEO, Richard Stobart said, “We want to make it possible for anyone to own an EV – particularly those without off-street parking. Char.gy’s mission is to make EV charging as simple as possible for drivers.”

Stobart confirmed that were it not for the help received from WMG, the prototype and every other thing could not have been possible.

He thanked the team for understanding the startup’s needs and providing a quick solution that turned things around regarding cost and time.

“I highly recommend them to startups struggling with difficult engineering challenges,” he said.

Dr. Norman, an electronics engineer from WMG, said, “I worked closely with the Char.gy team to develop the final electronic circuits needed for completion of the product. I continued with the remote support of the product certification and EMC testing which rounded of my help. It was a really interesting and exciting project to be work on, and I am very proud of what has been achieved.”

The Warwick University is committed to speeding up the future of energy efficient EVs, and supporting those who own them through cutting-edge technology, and the rapidly evolving infrastructure of the university.

Warwick purchased four Char.gy charging points and is planning to buy more in the future. They, however, have other numerous charging points across the campus.

The startup Char.gy was established in 2016, and it aims to provide reliable charging points to EV owners without off-street charging points.

Currently, the company is the only service provider for lamppost charging points in the UK, and the only one that has complied with the Alternative Fuels and Infrastructure (AFI) regulations, and ELEXON certified.